Within the shadow of the portico, Adele stood frozen, afraid to breathe as he jogged up the drive. He gazed straight ahead, and with any luck, he’d run right on by without seeing her. But lately, Adele’s luck had been fairly shitty, and just before he disappeared from sight, his head turned, and he looked right at her. His footsteps slowed and stopped. He retraced a few steps backward, and a crease furrowed his brow. For several long seconds, he simply stared at her, pinning Adele with a gaze she could feel rather than see. He was breathing a bit heavy as he pulled air into his lungs, and he slowly raised a hand to his temple and turned off the MP3 built into the slim frame of his glasses. He pulled the little speakers from his ears, then pushed the black sunglasses to the top of his head. Across the distance he looked at her through the dark brown eyes that used to make her heart squeeze and her stomach ache. His brows lowered over his steady gaze, and he walked from the sunlight into the shadow. With each step of his jogging shoes, her heart pounded a little faster in her chest, and she put a hand on the trunk of the car to keep from keeling over…or passing out…or jumping in the car and locking the doors.
After all these years, he still moved the same. Relaxed as if he was saving his energy for something important. Like throwing a long bomb, sprinting past a determined lineman, or exerting himself in bed. Sweat dampened the armpits of a blue X-TERRA T-shirt that fit loose about his wide chest. A pair of gray cotton jogging shorts rested low on his hips and fell midway to his powerful thighs. He was bigger than she remembered. His jaw was stronger, his cheekbones more defined. Age had not robbed him of one ounce of his good looks. If anything, he was even more gorgeous than she remembered. And as she forced herself to stand there and face Zach instead of jumping in the car and peeling out on his nice cobblestone driveway, she held on to a desperate hope that perhaps he didn’t recognize her.
“Adele?” So much for her desperate hope.
“Hello,” she managed. “How are you, Zach?”
“Surprised.” His voice was different. Deeper. More masculine than she remembered, but his accent was pure Texas. “It’s been a long time.”
Fourteen years.
His gaze moved across her face to her unruly hair. “You look the same.”
He didn’t. He looked better. More like a man. “I’m here to pick up my niece, Kendra.”
“Oh.” His gaze returned to hers and after several long heartbeats, he said, “I’ll get her.” He turned toward the door and took a few steps.
“She knows I’m here.”
He turned back toward her and the early-morning sun filtered though the vines above his head and cut slashes of light across his eyes and the full crease of his mouth.
“I had to take her mother to the hospital,” Adele explained. “She’s still there.”
A single bead of sweat ran down his right temple. He raised his arm and wiped the side of his face with the short sleeve of his T-shirt. “You took her last night?”
“Yes.”
He dropped his arm to his side and lowered his gaze to the coffee stain on her sweater. “Nothing serious, I hope.”
“Not really,” she lied, and clenched her hands to keep from covering the stain. “I heard about Devon.”
He looked up. “Yes. She was killed in a car accident three years ago.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Shock number four. She’d actually said that without choking.
“Thank you.” He took a few steps toward her, and she had to remind herself to breathe. “The Junior League isn’t quite the same without her.” He bent forward and picked up the keys at her feet. “Or so they tell me.” He rose to stand, so close that the scent of his warm skin touched her nose. There had been a time when she would have breathed deep and sucked the scent of him deep into her lungs, but those days were long over. “I didn’t realize you live in Cedar Creek,” he said.
“I don’t. I’m just here until my sister has her baby.”
“When’s the baby due?”
When? He was so close that she took a step back and bumped into the trunk of her sister’s car. “Around Valentine’s day,” she answered.
“Four months.” He reached forward and grasped her wrists. He slid his warm palm to the back of her hand and turned it up. “That’s a long visit,” he said, and dropped her keys into her hand.
“Yes.” Her gaze lowered to their hands and the words “Carpe Diem” tattooed in bold script on the inside of his forearm from elbow to wrist. Unless he’d had it removed, he had a pair of interlocking tattooed Z’s circling his left biceps, too.
The heavy door to the house opened and shut behind Kendra and Tiffany, and Adele closed her hand and pulled it from his grasp. “Too long.” The girls moved from beneath the vine-covered walkway into the shade of the portico. “Did you find your shoes?” she asked, and purposely turned her attention to her niece.
Kendra nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Zemaitis. I had a really good time.”
“I’m sorry about your momma.” He took a few steps back, and Adele quickly slid around the side of the car. “Let us know if there is anything we can do for y’all.” His deep voice held a hint of a smile when he added, “It was nice to see you again, Adele.”
Adele reached for the door handle and looked across at him. His lips were curved up at the corners, but she couldn’t say that it was nice to see him. Beyond the shock of seeing him after so many years, she felt nothing. No lifting of her heart. No butterflies in her stomach or warm tingles at the backs of her knees. “Good-bye, Zach.” She joined Kendra in the car and refused to look into the rearview mirror until she pulled away. Through the glass, she caught one last glimpse of the man who’d once crushed her heart. He put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and moved toward the house.
Adele returned her attention to the driveway and pulled out into the street. He’d been the first man with whom she’d had sex. She’d saved herself because she’d thought she had to be in love to make love. “Right.” She made a scoffing sound and reached for her sunglasses. She’d never made that mistake again. As she’d discovered in the past fourteen years, sometimes some of the best sex had nothing to do with love. Sometimes it was just a hot release of pent-up lust. Although lately, she wouldn’t know. Being cursed played hell with her sex life.
“Did anyone call Daddy?”
She slid the glasses on her face and glanced at Kendra. “I’m not sure.” But she doubted it. “Do you want to call him?”
Kendra shrugged. “I don’t know if he cares what happens to us.”
Adele turned her full attention to Kendra and issues more important than an old boyfriend, lack of sex, and curses. “I’m sure he cares what happens to you.”
“No.” Kendra shook her head. “I thought when he found out the baby was a boy, he’d want us all to live together again. But he only cares about Stormy.”
“Stormy.” Adele made a gagging sound and wrinkled her nose as if she’d smelled something rotten. “What a stupid name.”
“She’s a bitch.” Kendra glanced at Adele out of the corners of her eyes as if she expected to be reprimanded for swearing.
“Yeah. A bitch with a stupid name,” Adele added as she drove through the gates and out into the real world where the air was a bit easier to breathe.
“Momma says I shouldn’t hate anyone, but I hate Stormy.”
Adele reached for her water bottle between the two front seats and unscrewed the cap. Sherilyn had always tried to be so good. The perfect Southern lady and look where that had gotten her. Adele had never tried to be perfect like her sister, but she had always tried to be kind. To be thoughtful of other people, and look where that had gotten her. She took a long drink and replaced the cap. She might not be alone and pregnant, but she was alone and cursed with one bad date after another. “I hate a lot of things.” Being surprised by an old boyfriend was currently at the top of the list.
“I hate peas.” Kendra fiddled with the zipper pull of her backpack. “I hate Cedar Creek. It’s just so small.”
“True, but you’ve already made friends. Tiffany seems like a nice girl.” Which was true and also a surprise, given her mother. Although, Zach had always been polite. Sometimes sarcastically so. He’d once told her that the fear of three-hundred-pound linebackers was nothing compared to slipping with a curse word or being disrespectful in front of his mother.
It was nice to see you again, Adele, he’d said, but he was probably just being polite. Not that she cared.
Adele had lost her accent. A smile curved Zach’s lips. Well, she might have lost that Southern, melt-you-like-butter voice spilling from her full red mouth, but she was still as hot as all hell. Still had those long curls and turquoise eyes that looked slightly drowsy even when she was wide-awake. Still looked good in other places, too.
Zach dried his hair with a towel, then hung it on the heated towel rack in the bathroom. He grabbed his electric razor and walked into his bedroom. He had half an hour to get to his office at Cedar Creek High to review last night’s game tapes with the other coaches. He shaved as he dressed in blue boxers, a pair of Levi’s, and a Cougars Coaching Staff sweatshirt.
She hadn’t seemed very happy to see him, though. In fact, she’d been all fired up to leave. Which was probably for the best. He wasn’t the kind of guy who lived in the past or thought much about what might or could have been. He didn’t relive his glory days in the NFL, nor did he rehash his mistakes. God knows there’d been enough of those.
Zach pointed his chin to the ceiling and shaved just below his jaw. When he did look back on his life, he saw it in three distinct parts. Before the NFL, during, and his life now. He’d known Adele a few lifetimes ago, and he had little interest in a trip down memory lane. Especially with a woman who clearly wanted nothing to do with him.
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